Northern Ireland is changing, argues GERARD GALLAGHER, and it’s time for Labour to allow the region’s growing and increasingly relevant party to field its own candidates....
Forde & Post-Fordeism
The Forde Report on antisemitism in the Labour Party raised serious questions about its internal structures, processes and culture. ERIC SHAW summarises the events before and after the report’s publication last July, and asks what has been learned from the whole sorry story....
Celebrating Six ‘Crucial’ Years of Labour Rule
Sheffield-based co-operative resource centre Principle 5 has re-published an historic pamphlet celebrating the first six years of Labour control of the Yorkshire city’s local council, a period of social progress that lasted from 1926 to 1932....
A Tale of Two Keirs: Labour & its Broad Church
Keir Hardie’s conception of Labour as a broad alliance of left and liberal thinkers is under threat like never before from Keir Starmer’s leadership team. DAVID CONNOLLY calls for a halt to the current hostility and a renewed commitment to the founder’s vision....
Ireland, the ILP & the Slow Train to Peace
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland reaches it 25th anniversary on 10 April. The ILP and a grassroots peace movement played an often-forgotten yet important role on the road to reconciliation. GARY KENT aims to put the record straight....
Alistair Graham 1936-2023: ‘A great friend and a steadfast comrade’
DAVID CONNOLLY pays tribute to Alistair Graham, an ILPer for more than 60 years, who died on 27 February after a lifetime dedicated to the Labour and peace movements....
A Family Affair
Before he died, Walter Smith wrote a personal account of growing up in a left-wing household at the start of the 20th century. It is, says MATTHEW BROWN, a poignant reflection on the hopes and failures of the socialist movement....
ILP@130: In or Out – The Lessons of 1932
Socialist historian IAN BULLOCK marks the ILP’s 130th anniversary by reflecting on its fateful decision to disaffiliate from Labour and his own relationship with the Party, drawing pointers for today’s left about the unhappy consequences of separation....
ILP@130: A Festival of Hope
Founded in Bradford on 13 January 1893, the ILP marked its 130th anniversary this month when 130 socialists, activists and community workers came together ‘to create a positive collective vision of what a society that works for everyone might look like’. MARY STRATFORD reports. ...
Labour Green Group Calls for Starmer to Back Public Ownership
Labour for a Green New Deal have launched a campaign for public ownership of energy aimed at putting pressure on Keir Starmer to stick to the promise he made during his Labour leadership bid three years ago....
Labour in Crisis Revisited
When Eric Preston died in September 2020, the ILP lost one of its leading writers and thinkers, a man who – in the words of David Connolly’s obituary – “was ahead of his time” in thinking through the dilemmas and difficulties faced by a Labour left operating within a cautious party and against a...
Compass Calls on Labour to Cease Faction Fighting
Campaign group Compass has called on the Labour Party’s central office to stop the “spurious and factional dismissal of talent and breadth” in its current round of candidate selections, a process that’s seen “favoured candidates of the leadership waved through” while others are blocked or penalised....